Wanna feel better? Stroll through a cemetery

(Photo by R N Marshman)

It used to be that people would avoid thinking about death. Hanging out in cemeteries was considered morbid, unless – of course – it was Halloween.

These days, science is proving them foolish.  Not only can frequenting cemeteries be enlightening, but it can even be downright healthful.  According to Medical News Today, “thinking about death can actually be a good thing.”  It promotes an “awareness of mortality” that can help us to keep our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual houses in order.

Kenneth Vail of the University of Missouri has reviewed a number of upbeat studies on the topic of mortality awareness.  One that was described in a 2008 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

“tested how just being physically near a cemetery” encouraged participants to be 40% more helpful to passers-by.  Vail noted that other studies also showed that “the awareness of death can motivate

increased expressions of tolerance, egalitarianism, compassion, empathy, and pacifism.”

Dr. Robert Firestone wrote about “Life-Affirming Death Awareness” in a 2010 Psychology Today article.  He told about his own childhood experience of sharing a bedroom with a dying grandfather.  The growing awareness that his grandfather had never really lived a vibrant life taught the young lad to embrace his own future.  The “mistakes” that his grandfather had made included the following: “meaningless grievances, family disputes, and long, tedious hours at a job he hated.”

It therefore seems important that many traditions emphasize an intimate relationship with the dead and dying.  Cumbria.gov.uk reports on the following religious customs:  Jews are not to be left alone at the time of death;  a relative may recite holy hymns to a dying Sikh; Hindus often wish to die at home; Muslim family members join the dying person in prayer; many Christians wish to receive Communion shortly before death; and Buddhist monks often chant scriptures to those who are dying.

Resources

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244364.php

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-experience/201003/life-affirming-death-awareness

http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/elibrary/Content/Internet/536/656/3838485955.pdf

Copyright June 1, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved